Reflection Journal 2

When planning for assessment of a student with hearing loss, what considerations should you keep in mind? There are many things to consider when assessing a child who is deaf or hard of hearing. The goal of assessment is to find out what the student knows. I would consider language skills of the child, their literacy skills, and the mode of communication preferred by the child. The child’s receptive and expressive language skills would be the first thing I would consider when choosing what assessment would best fit the child.  Secondly, I would take into consideration that child’s mode of communication. Is that child oral? Do they use manual communication? If so, do they use ASL, signed English, C.A.S.E., etc… For an older child, I would hope to have some knowledge of their literacy skills to know where to start from; however, I know sometimes that information isn’t available to the teacher, and may be the reason for assessment. My experience has been with preschool age children, where this information was vital to understanding how to administer an assessment. 

Should you use only tests designed for this population? Why or why not? I don’t believe that you should only administer tests designed for the deaf and hard of hearing population.  There is still important information that can be gleaned from a test that is not normed on D/HH students, even if modifications are needed to assess properly. It would be great if all the assessments normed for hearing children where also normed for D/HH; however, you can still get an understanding of the child even though the test results are not as valid.

Communicating with teachers and staff is a vital part of Deaf education Do you think face-to-face is better or email? Why and how do you plan to communicate with staff? I think that face-to-face communication is the best for teachers trying to create a rapport with one another. I also think it is important for personal communication when a teacher has never had a D/HH child, and is perhaps apprehensive or unsure. I don’t think that email is inappropriate, and can be a great way to work around busy schedules. I think both means of communication have their appropriate place and time. I would hope to get to communicate with teachers and staff by having meetings or conferences, but I would use email if that were the only means to reach out to another professional. I would hope that any staff I work with would feel comfortable enough to bring questions and concerns to me face-to-face; however, some people feel more comfortable doing that through email. I’m glad that we have that option to further communication.